Admit it, just about all of us ate and finished dinner on November 8th, expecting to hear that the election would be called shortly after polls began closing at 7:00. With former First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton named the 45th President of the United States. Things did not go as planned for millions of Americans.

Even in Washington, the majority of the business community was planning for a Clinton presidency and reading the tea leaves for what to expect for her “First 100 Days." Do you think many bothered to study possible Trump administration cabinet picks? Probably not.

But as we know now, the one thing that’s constant in Washington is change. One day your boss, the Senator or Congressman is enjoying the life of a well-connected political insider, the next day scandal or worse, illness, arrives and you’re updating your resume.

One thing to bear in mind is that while members of the hard sciences (medical) community are exceptionally brilliant, operating on hearts and myriad other physical attributes of the body, social scientists, particularly political scientists, must deal with one of the absolute complex organisms in the world, human beings.

Forecasters and many journalist got it ALL wrong for one reason. They chose not to go out and talk to people. To get into their hearts and minds what concerns they had and what was driving them to vote in November. In addition, millions felt degraded or worse for supporting Donald Trump, and in the end, just didn’t speak with pollsters.

So back to complexity of the human being, we need to roll up our sleeves and learn what President-Elect Trump will champion. We know that with the Republican House and Senate in the majority, a repeal of the Affordable Care Act is now closer than ever, but what about part two of this equation? What will the replacement be? President-elect Trump has acknowledged that provisions such as remaining on a parent’s health plan until the age of 26 and providing for coverage with pre-existing conditions are items that he could support remaining in the law.

What remains will be up to ASA, our members and others in the business community to work with Congress and the Trump administration to improve that law and other issues like comprehensive tax reform once and for all.

The Hill President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to make slashing regulations a "cornerstone" of his administration. On the campaign trail, Trump suggested as many as 70 percent of federal regulations "can go" and also proposed a moratorium on new rules. With control of both chambers, congressional Republicans are also eager to roll back Obama's regulatory legacy. And they have a number of tools at their disposal.READ MORE

Politico This is what winging it looks like, America.
Donald Trump is compulsively improvisational and ran the most successful back-of-the-napkin operation in American political history, but the challenge confronting him is, by his own admission, nothing like anything anybody has ever faced. Like practically everybody else in the country, Trump really didn’t think he’d be spending this weekend trying to staff the upper management of the world’s sole remaining superpower.READ MORE

Roll Call While the capital remains convulsed over Donald Trump’s astonishing election and transfixed by every aspect of his presidential transition, the second-most important transfer of federal power will have a straightforward start this week.
The freshly elected members of the House arrive on Capitol Hill on Monday to begin an elaborately choreographed and photographed orientation, while incoming senators are expected Tuesday to begin an indoctrination that’s both less formal and more secretive.READ MORE